Natural Magic
by silverphyrbyrd
Summary: There is a new subject and a new teacher at Hogwarts, and Doctor Sterling, teacher of Natural Magic, is very young for the job. The other teachers look on her as a child and one of her students looks on her as something else... OCDraco fluff.


Disclaimer: The usual - Harry Potter and company belong to JK Rowling, not me. The song 'Talk to You' is copyright Helen Highwater.

Author's notes: This is written a long time ago for three reasons: one, someone said they wanted fluff, two, a challenge with my friend Marissa ('who writes best fluff?') and three, I wanted to see which I write best - slash or straight. However, I have an natural aversion to being overly fluffy, just as I have a natural aversion to cliches. So why do I do it so much?

No, my name is not Amanda Sterling, but this is about as Mary-Sueish as I get. I've seen worse.

NATURAL MAGIC

'Good morning, class. My name is Doctor Sterling, cross me and you will regret it. This, as you know, is the basic course in natural magic. Cross nature and if you survive to regret it then you are very, very lucky indeed.'

The speaker was the teacher of the newest class on the Hogwarts curriculum, and she looked like she belonged behind a desk, not in front of the class. At most, she was twenty-four, though she looked about seventeen, had very thick, very well-kept brown hair spilling unchecked over her shoulders and eyes that changed from green to grey and back again behind her brass-rimmed glasses. She had arrived just before term started, accompanied by three owls, two toads and seven cats, and, though she looked so young, nobody at Hogwarts could remember seeing her before. She scanned the room.

'You,' she said, pointing. 'The Slytherin, fifth row back, what's your name?'

'Draco Malfoy, Doctor,' he replied.

'Well, Draco Malfoy, what makes trees grow?'

'Natural magic,' answered Malfoy.

'That would be the obvious answer - it's wrong. Gryffindor, second from front, who are you, and what makes trees grow?'

'Hermione Granger, Doctor - Sunlight?'

'Good try - no. Harry Potter?' Of course she knew _his_ name.

Harry thought for a second, then answered cautiously, 'Life force?'

'Exactly!' Doctor Sterling turned and chalked the words _Natural Magic Life Force_ on the board, and everyone saw the huge metallic blue and silver cobweb on the back of her unbelted black silk robe - none of the other teachers wore anything like that. She turned back and the robe swung out, showing a purple lining and a loose but clinging grey dress, belted with a sparkling purple scarf. 'And that is what natural magic is about - life, appreciation of life, and um... you, next to Miss Granger..?'

'Ron Weasley, Doctor.'

'How do we make natural magic work for us?'

There was a long pause while Ron tried to think of an answer, eventually coming up with a cautious, 'We say please?' The class laughed, but Doctor Sterling only smiled.

'Nearly,' she said. 'Not quite, but nearly. We don't make it work for us, we persuade it to work _with_ us, do you understand?' The teacher's voice became hard and instructive. 'If you try to force nature to do something it doesn't want to do, or move too fast for nature's liking, someone will get hurt. And _it will almost certainly be you_. Nature is much, much stronger than you are, remember that. Natural magic can guide a bird thousands of miles to a continent it has never seen before. Natural magic can drive a marshmallow-soft toadstool through a pavement. Natural magic creates microclimates that can keep rain away from a place for years at a time. Any questions? No? Oh, yes - Mr Malfoy?'

'Will you be teaching us defense against natural magic?'

'I'll be teaching defense against natural magic should anyone try to use it on you, not if nature itself turns on you. If you are caught in an earthquake, for example, there is no known natural spell to protect you from that. I will also show you antidotes to some natural venoms: snake, spider, etcetera, and how to take them without harming the plant or animal involved. Now, please pick up your quills...'

Six classes later, all the teachers were collected together in the teacher's common room. The new girl was a strange one - she didn't say much, but there were a few teachers like that. She just sat there and _listened_, and spoke when she thought she could make a contribution. It was usually worthwhile to listen to what she had to say. Then there was her habit of watching the lips of the speaker like a snake watches anything that moves - it made people want to cover their mouths when they spoke to her. This didn't bother Professor Snape much, who hardly moved his lips at all.

'So, Doctor - I hope you don't mind me asking, but how-'

'Nineteen,' replied Doctor Sterling before Professor Snape had time to finish.

'And you got to teaching level in such a short time?' he asked suspiciously. 'I don't believe you ever attended Hogwarts.'

'Right, on both counts,' answered the Doctor, a little stiffly from talking to Snape, who she didn't like at all. 'I was home-tutored, as is traditional in the Sterling family, then took my degree and the teacher-training course at the same time. For the natural magics, the two courses are almost identical.'

'I see.'

'Oh, leave the poor gir- young woman alone, Sevrius,' said Dumbledore. 'Would you care for a drink, Doctor?'

'Amanda, please!' protested Amanda. 'Tea, please. No sugar.'

'Almost identical, eh?' asked Dumbledore, handing her the cup. 'Well, I have to say, I _was_ wondering...' Amanda accepted the cup with a beautiful smile and thought, They're all treating me like a child...

'So, what do you think of the new teacher?' asked Hermione, curled up in an armchair in the Gryffindor common room. 'How old do you think she is?'

'Dunno,' said Ron, who wasn't paying much attention. ' She's beautiful, though...' Harry looked across at Hermione, who rolled her eyes.

'The course sounds like fun,' said Harry.

'That's strange, it's normally me that's the first to say that,' answered Hermione. 'But yes, you're right. Did you hear what she said about field trips to the Forbidden Forest?'

'Oh, yes... I'm surprised Dumbledore even considered it.'

'No, not that... when she said, "whether the proposed field trips to the Forbidden Forest go ahead depends on whether the Forest itself allows me to take you through unharmed. I refuse to risk my students in any way." What a wierd thing to say.'

'I don't know... Maybe we'll find out what she meant later.'

It wasn't going well at all. The faculty were still treating her like a student. Professor Sprout had actually asked her to prove that Natural Magic wasn't just an uppity teenager trying to teach Herbology - Amanda had tried not to lose her temper, smiled coldly and demonstrated the incredibly messy defence systems of the crested gloop, thanking her lucky stars that there was one nearby who owed her a favour. It hadn't earned her any extra friends, but it had been funny. Sprout left her alone now.

The only member of staff she really got on with was Hagrid, with his love of magical creatures of every kind and his treatment of her as an equal. They got along like a house on fire, and he was the only real friend she'd made since coming here, except for that debate about animals as 'pets' and animals as 'friends'. Amanda had won that argument eventually, but Hagrid had been a little cool with her for nearly a week.

The students kept quiet through alternate interest and terror. There was the time she'd brought a four-tentacled fensimker into class, for example, just to get some order...

'Alright, class, as you appear to think that you know everything I can teach you,' began Amanda to the seventh-year class, who had begun to get stroppy because of her age. 'I have brought in a little test. This,' she said, putting a box on the table, 'is a four-tentacled fensimker. Comparitively harmless, but compared to what? Who would like to come here, wake it up and take it out of the box?' The box was silent, but ominously silent, and not even Hermione Granger put up her hand. 'Nobody? Oh, come on, with all the talking you've done over the past few weeks I'd have thought one of you - Mr Malfoy, I thought you might volunteer - off you go, then.'

Malfoy cautiously opened the box and looked inside. His eyes widened and he started to laugh. 'That's _it_? _That's_ a -' then he screamed as the little ball of pink fur opened red eyes and leaped at him, fangs bared and tentacles waving. There was a keening noise from somewhere behind it and it turned.

'_K-k-k-kck_.' said Amanda. The thing growled at her and leapt on Malfoy's shoulders, preparing to bite his head off. Amanda made a reproving little whining noise, it returned with a disappointed snarl and left the startled Slytherin alone. '_Ssss_...' said Amanda, and the fensimker allowed itself to be picked up and settled round her shoulders, where it went back to sleep. Amanda looked round at the shell-shocked class. 'When you can talk a four-tentacled fensimker out of attacking and then persuade it to go to sleep round your neck, _then_ you'll be bright enough to talk through my class. There are many tests like this. Mr Malfoy, you may sit down.'

She repeated that trick every now and again to keep her class in order, and it worked. People stayed interested to learn how they could do that for themselves, or if she'd let the next man-eating plant or animal eat her next student volunteer. There were rumours going round that she'd done that to people before - Amanda didn't know who'd started them, but they got her something resembling respect from her students, so she allowed, if not encouraged them, to continue.

It was raining one evening, and nearly all the staff and students were indoors. However, one student was standing at a window watching a figure walking towards Hogwarts with something wrapped in its cloak. He knew that figure, and went to meet it. He heard the door bang, brisk footsteps and strange, animal noises from a human throat before he turned the corner and walked straight into-

'Doctor Sterling!'

'Hush! You'll scare it!' said Amanda, obviously startled, but not too startled to give this warning. She crooned a strange sound at the thing in her arms. 'Excuse me, Mr Malfoy, this creature is injured.'

'What is it?' asked Malfoy, falling in step beside her - not easy, she was walking quite fast.

'It's a kibblemisk,' answered Amanda. 'I felt its pain and came to find it. When you can hear a creature's pain from inside a human building in the middle of a storm, then bring it home and heal it, there will be nothing more I can teach you. Now kindly get out of my way.'

'Do you need any help?' Malfoy was almost surprised to hear himself saying that. Amanda purred gently at the kibblemisk, then pursed her lips in thought.

'Alright. Stay awhile, I might need a hand. Kibblemisks can be difficult.' She said nothing more to him until they got to her room, simply purring and crooning at the bundle in her arms, presumably to stop it getting scared, then she said, 'Oh, fleas - the key's in my bag - Mr Malfoy, would you mind?' Malfoy nodded and got the heavy brass key out of the bag on Amanda's belt - he had to get through a lot of soaking wet black and purple silk, but he got it, feeling a little self-conscious as his fingers brushed against her hip. Amanda didn't seem to notice, she just walked in through a tide of cats and laid her bundle in a crib at the end of the bed.

'You do this a lot, then?' said Malfoy. 'You seem prepared.'

'Oh, yes,' said Amanda. 'There's dry blankets and towels in that chest over there. Could you get me a towel, too?' Malfoy obeyed, and Amanda took off her sopping wet spider-web robe. Underneath, the more-or-less dry grey dress clung in all the right places and Malfoy only just stopped his jaw hanging open as she rolled up her sleeves, washed and dried her hands and set to work.

The kibblemisk turned out to be a grey reptile about the size of a human baby. It looked like a normal lizard, apart from the two heads, and the bright blue front feet. It was absolutely covered in blood.

'It says a wolf got it,' said Amanda. 'It's lost a lot of blood. I hope I can save it. _Isissississ_.' The little hissing noise, directed at the kibblemisk, was rewarded with a weak keening. 'I need a heat spell, Mr Malfoy. It's a reptile, we have to keep it warm.' Malfoy nodded and set up a simple heat spell, adjusted until Amanda said it was right, then the Natural Magic teacher got up and went over to a plant in the corner. She stroked it a few times, breathing close to the leaves, when eventually there was a rustle and the plant dropped a single leaf into her palm. She returned, muttering 'Cheapskate,' and returned to work. As Malfoy watched, she wiped the cuts with the juice of the leaf, and it must have been a kind of anaesthetic, because the lizard didn't even flinch when she started to sew the worst of the cuts up. The expression of extreme concentration on her face was impressively intense, but the threads shimmered and vanished, she sat back and smiled. 'Thank gods. I thought we'd lose it for a moment there.'

'It's cured?' asked Malfoy. He was answered by the kibblemisk turning over and starting to snore.

'Yes, it's cured. Thankyou very much indeed for your help.'

'But all I did was keep it warm.'

'That's all I needed you to do. If I'd had to concentrate on another spell, I may have lost it, and now I'll be able to persuade it to scare the first year Slytherins and Hufflepuffs tomorrow - but don't you dare breathe a word.'

'It doesn't look dangerous,' said Malfoy, looking down at the sleeping lizard. 'But then, neither did the fensimker.'

'It's not dangerous. It's fast, it's got big teeth, but it's harmless. Its prime means of defence is convincing predators that it's a killer, though - but the first years don't know that.' Malfoy looked at Amanda's face and her wicked grin.

'You're evil, Doctor.'

'I know. And if you dare to tell them what's in store you'll find out exactly how evil I can be. Now, it's getting late - thankyou very much for your help - fifteen points to Slytherin - but you'd better go now. Goodnight.'

'Goodnight.' As Draco left, Amanda was struck by the incredibly un-academic thought of how beautiful he really was, with that silvery hair and those equally silvery eyes... She slapped the thought down, hard. She was a teacher. He was her student. Oh, to be a student again...

Gods, she was amazing. Malfoy walked down the corridor towards his room - as head prefect of Slytherin house he had his own - and wondered how young she really was. Sterling, Sterling, that was a long, pure-blooded wizarding family, not as well known as the Malfoys, but that was only because it was generally a secretive race. An attractive but shy breed, usually found only in deep woods. Normally harmless, but if goaded may strike at random, thought Malfoy. Oh, I'm starting to think like one of her lessons. He'd heard that the Sterlings had an 'agreement' with the Dayforest dryads. An arranged marriage, a little dryad magic and the female twin would go with the dryads, the male would go with the Sterlings. Or was it the other way around? It might have been true. The doctor was beautiful enough for it to be true, with those changing eyes and the gorgeous hair and the face, figure and elegance of a wood-spirit. She'd tended that lizard with such skill, such gentleness, and Malfoy knew she'd show the same to the entire world if she didn't think they'd throw it in her face. He had a horrible feeling he was falling in love.

The next day, Amanda took the kibblemisk back to the Forbidden Forest after supper to set it free. It scuttled off into the undergrowth and she looked back at the castle... Just a little while longer away from the castle. The Forbidden Forest might not like her much, but it was better than Hogwarts, where she was only a teacher if she kept a reign of terror. And she'd be away from that beautiful, beautiful Draco Malfoy too... They'd met but little today, and that was good, because he made her head spin. He only tried to learn in her class out of sheer humiliation with the fensimker, she knew that, but if she were to show him, teach him herself what natural magic was when it came from the heart... She sighed and stepped into the forest.

A silver-haired figure saw her and followed.

'_Into the dark, feeling for ages_

_It's so cold out there_

_Finding the way _

_Is not as easy as it seems so we're_

_Signing away our dreams..._' It was a beautiful voice, wild, free, untamed - and so _sad_. It belonged to a graceful figure in a long, unbelted robe, moving with the accustomed ease of someone used to the forest.

'_All I really need is someone to talk to_

_Like the heart of the cooling streams_

_I really want to talk to you_

_I need to talk to you..._'

'So talk,' said a little voice by her ear. Amanda yelped in startled surprise and spun around, catching Malfoy in the chest and sending him backwards into a tree.

'Ow,' said Malfoy on general principles as his feet buckled underneath him. Amanda looked at him with still-startled eyes - she wasn't used to being caught singing.

'I'm sorry,' she said, although whether she was apologising to him, the tree or both wasn't exactly clear. 'You really shouldn't creep up on people like that, Mr Malfoy. Here.' She extended a hand to help him up, and pulled him to his feet, trying to ignore how good his hand felt in hers. 'And what exactly are you doing in the forest? I thought it was forbidden to students.'

'Well...' said Malfoy, tried to think of a lie and gave up. 'I followed you.'

'Ah-huh, and why?'

'Because of the expression on your face when you were about to go in. You looked like you really, _really_ didn't want to go back to Hogwarts yet and I wondered why.'

'What makes you think I'll tell you? Would Professor Snape tell you? Or Madam Hooch? Or Professor Sprout? Or Professor Dumbledore?' Amanda's tone had heated up a bit now, and Malfoy was ready to swear he could see her eyes glowing in the darkness like glow-worms. He smiled slightly.

'You already did, Doctor,' he said. 'They treat you differently, the other teachers?'

'Yes!' snapped Amanda, then turned and strode back towards the school. She found her way blocked by branches. 'Great,' she muttered, then stroked the tree-trunks for a moment. Eventually she nodded and turned around. 'Mr Draco Malfoy, Slytherin House, the model student.'

'Well, it _is_ nearing the end of term, Doctor,' replied Malfoy. 'I _was_ paying attention when you told us how to talk to trees. You think these trees don't like you? They're sorry for you. Sympathetic.' He stroked the tree beside him, a beech tree, which rustled its leaves. Amanda folded her arms and sighed.

'Very funny,' she said, again it was unclear who she was speaking to. 'Sympathetic about what?' Suddlenly, Malfoy was less than a foot away.

'You know, Doctor. Otherwise I wouldn't have had any co-operation at all.' Amanda didn't have time to reply before she felt his lips on hers and his arms around her waist. I shouldn't, I really shouldn't... she thought, then gave in and returned the kiss, her arms slipping round his neck and her tongue flicking delicately against his. When he released her lips, she reluctantly thought about who they were and pushed him away, with a little more force than she'd originally intended so he staggered halfway across the clearing.

'No, this shouldn't be happening. I'm a teacher, you're a student,' she said.

'Who's to see?' said Malfoy.

'Oh, that's all this is? One night in the forest? Well, I will not lose my place for emotions, Mr Malfoy.' Amanda turned to go, but she was still trapped, and the trees wouldn't let her pass. 'Traitors,' she muttered.

'I didn't mean it like that,' said Malfoy. 'I mean, we don't have to let anybody know. I graduate soon, and then it can all come out, but till then...' Amanda watched him, wishing she was a student, then there wouldn't be half so much risk. He came closer, but she didn't move until he slipped his arms around her waist. Then she melted like ice in a passionate kiss. He tasted so good, and his hair felt so soft under her fingers...

'Is it true about the Dayforest dryads in the Sterling line, Doctor?' asked Malfoy, spreading kisses down her throat.

'Amanda - call me Amanda,' said Amanda, heart hammering. 'And yes, it's true. Every seventh generation.'

'Which are you?'

'Fourth.'

'The beauty of a wood-spirit - oh, Amanda, you're enchanting.' Amanda's robe slipped off her shoulders and was spread, a surprisingly big blanket, on the forest floor. 'But can I ask-'

'Nineteen,' said Amanda, unbuttoning Malfoy's robe. 'Now shut up and kiss me, Draco.' Draco did, undoing Amanda's belt while her nimble fingers dealt with the buttons of his school uniform. She stepped back to allow him to pull her grey dress over her head, and smiled softly when he gasped. She wasn't wearing anything underneath, but the moonlight outlined green shadows around her breasts and hips. 'Dryad line, Draco,' she said. 'Doesn't only extend to flashing eyes.' She stepped forward and finished undressing Draco. They embraced each other, skin-to-skin at last, and as they made sweet, tender love in the moonlight they became part of each other in a way neither could explain.

'Amanda, I'm afraid this really is unacceptable,' said Dumbledore a few days later in the teacher's common room. It was early, and only they were there.

'What is, Albus?' asked Amanda.

'We really can't have these relationships with your pupils.'

'What relationship?'

'Why, the one you appear to be carrying on with Draco Malfoy.' Amanda looked at Dumbledore and narrowed her eyes slightly. Before you admit a thing, find out how much they know, that's what Papa had always said...

'When?' she asked.

'Well, I don't know how long for, but something definitely happened the night you came home so late from the Forbidden Forest. Besides which, you've both been acting very strangely towards each other - I doubt the other students have noticed, but I notice these things.'

'Prove it.'

'Filch has seen Malfoy leaving your room late at night every night for at least a week, and last night Mrs. Norris caught you kissing. Didn't you notice? Amanda-'

'If I'm going to lose my job I'd rather you didn't call me that, Professor.'

'Doctor, I don't believe we'd be able to find another Natural Magics teacher in time for the end of this term, which, as you know, is not far off. I give you two choices. Cease this foolishness or, I regret to say, you must leave Hogwarts at the end of the term.' There was silence in the room for quite some time, then Amanda spoke.

'Well, Professor, I really don't know what to say. You are quite right, I have done the foolish thing and succumbed to my emotions. However, Draco Malfoy will no longer be a problem next term. I know you will not find another Natural Magics teacher by the end of this or any close term, because the only reason nobody noticed how similar the doctorate and the teacher training course were was because no-one had ever taken the teacher training course before. As far as personal relationships go, I am not willing to give up Draco. I suppose I will have to leave and take the course with me. Which is a pity. I believe the students like my classes. I suppose I'd have to give up the job. It's not as if any of the staff really takes me seriously round here.'

'Doctor, I-'

'No, Professor, you don't take me seriously. You treat me like a student, so do the others. So - the end of the term, is it?'

Professor Dumbledore was to be sorry he'd fired Amanda. Her marks were truly phenomenal, and the protests loud among the students who would be coming back next year to a syllabus without Natural Magic. But nothing he could do would persuade her to return.

Draco intended to carry on studying Natural Magic.

'My father didn't like the idea much,' he said. He was lying with Amanda on her cloak in the totally wild Sterling Manor garden, on a beautifully sunny summer day. He'd come to the Day Forest for a few days' holiday, about two weeks ago. 'Then he found out that not only was there immense power involved but my private tutor was a member of one of the purest, most noble wizard families, he gave in.'

'Oh, that's what your father's like, is it? Power and bloodlines?' asked Amanda.

'There's a lot to be said for them. Yours appears to be very carefully engineered, to produce so many nature wizards.'

'I told you, there was a deal with the dryads. The dryad blood weakens sporadically, humans are stronger. Dryads give us what we call the Wildblood line in return, a true connection to the natural world.'

'And beauty, was that part of the deal?'

'You don't need Dryad blood for beauty, Draco, my silver angel.' Amanda brushed a few stray strands out of his eyes and kissed him. 'Gods, I love you.'

'Is this really a time for prayers?'

'Draco - I love you. Don't ever leave me.'

'I won't,' said Draco, holding Amanda tight and burying his face in her flowing hair. 'I love you too much for that.'

'Thankyou,' murmured Amanda. She paused, lost in twin pools of silver-grey.

'Are you glad you left Hogwarts?'

'I think so. It's not a bad place if you're a student or an "adult" teacher, but for a teacher as young as me - no. I didn't belong there.'

'A fun course, though.'

'Glad you liked it. But now, there's nothing - no rules, no laws, no contracts - nothing to get in our way. Oh, Draco, I love you...' She kissed him passionately, grateful that it was all over and there really was nothing to bar them from their perfect love.

Whaddaya think? Not one of my best, I feel - I still think I write better slash, or my stories are better when they're spontaneous. Oh, well... P


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